Gunpowder was probably used for the first time in Europe during the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Historians do not know if this invention was carried from China to Europe or in The Europeans invented it independently. The invention of gunpowder greatly changed the way men fought. The Medival knight could not defend himself against firearms and cannons. Knights were replaced by the foot soldier who carried firearms. Between 1670 and 1729 William Congreve developed rockets to use during wars. In the seventeenth century the gun was developed by the English and Dutch armies.
Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons
by Chris Freeman
Gunpowder was probably used for the first time in Europe during the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Historians do not know if this invention was carried from China to Europe or in The Europeans invented it independently.
The invention of gunpowder greatly changed the way men fought. The Medival knight could not defend himself against firearms and cannons. Knights were replaced by the foot soldier who carried firearms.
Between 1670 and 1729 William Congreve developed rockets to use during wars.
In the seventeenth century the gun was developed by the English
Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Chinese Wujing Zongyao of 1044 AD. Gunpowder was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the invention of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin,smokeless powder and TNT in the 19th century. Prior to the invention of gunpowder, many incendiary and burning devices had been used, including Greek fire.
Gunpowder is considered one of Four Great Inventions of ancient China. Around 1240 the Arabs acquired knowledge of saltpeter ("Chinese snow") from the East, perhaps through India. They knew of gunpowder soon afterward, and not long after learned about fireworks ("Chinese flowers") and rockets ("Chinese arrows").
The bronze Dardanelles Gun, cast in 1464 for defense of theDardanelles strait
Further information: Inventions in the Muslim world and Alchemy and chemistry in Islam
The Arabs acquired knowledge of gunpowder some time after 1240, but before 1280, by which time Hassan al-Rammah had written, in Arabic, recipes for gunpowder, instructions for the purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries.[1] However, because al-Rammah attributes his material to "his father and forefathers", al-Hassan argues that gunpowder became prevalent in Syria and Egypt by "the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth".
C. F. Temler interprets Peter, Bishop of Leon, as reporting the use of cannon in Seville in 1248.[2] Al-Hassan claims that "the first cannon in history"[3] was used by the Mamluks against the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260;[4] Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world[5] and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early riflemen in their infantry as an example of how gunpowder weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East.[6] Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514.[6]
Though the consensus is that gunpowder originated in China, others have suggested that gunpowder might possibly have been invented by the Arabs, by Roger Bacon, or by Berthold Schwarz.[7] The general notion is that Arabic alchemy and chemistry did not know of saltpetre until the 13th century;[8] however, Ahmad Y Hassan argues that Arabs were purifying saltpetre by the 11th century[9] and that the earliest known military application of saltpetre (known as barud in Arabic) in the Islamic world is described in an Arabic manuscript written some time before 1225.[10]
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A picture of a 15th centuryAndalusian Arab cannon from the book Al-izz wal rifa'a.
According to Johnson (2008), the Arabs "had developed the first real gun, a bamboo tube reinforced with iron, which used a charge of black powder to fire an arrow" some time before 1300; however, according to Chase (2003:1), the Arabs only obtained firearms in the 14th century and all evidence points to Chinese origins.
Hasan al-Rammah included 107 gunpowder recipes in his al-furusiyyah wa al-manasib al-harbiyya (The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices), 22 of which are for rockets. If one takes the median of 17 of these 22 compositions for rockets (75% nitrates, 9.06% sulphur and 15.94% carbon), it is almost identical with the reported ideal recipe (75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulphur, and 15% carbon).[4]
Hasan al-Rammah also describes the purifying of saltpetre using the chemical processes of solution and crystallization. This was the first clear method for the purification of saltpetre.[11] The earliest torpedo was also first described in 1270 by Hasan al-Rammah in The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices, which illustrated a torpedo running with a rocket system filled with explosive materials and having three firing points.[12][13]
The earliest surviving documentary evidence for the use of the hand cannon, considered the oldest type of portable firearm and a forerunner of the handgun, are from several Arabic manuscripts dated to the 14th century.[14] Al-Hassan argues that these are based on earlier originals and that they report hand-held cannons being used by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.[4]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Islamic and Hindu worlds-edit] India]][edit]India
A 17th century forge-welded iron cannon, at Thanjavur's eastern entrance (India), built during the reign of Raghunatha Nayak (1600 - 1645 CE). Chinesegunpowdertechnology is believed to have arrived in India by the mid-14th century, but could have been introduced much earlier by the Mongols, who had conquered both China and India, perhaps as early as the mid-13th century. The unification of a large single Mongol Empire resulted in the free transmission of previously top-secret Chinesetechnology into aMongol conquered India. Regardless, it is believed that the Mongols used Chinese gunpowder weapons during their invasion and subsequent conquest of India.[15]
It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a dazzlingpyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258 AD.[16] As a part of an embassy to India by Timurid leader Shah Rukh (1405–1447), 'Abd al-Razzaq mentioned naphtha-throwers mounted on elephants and a variety of pyrotechnics put on display.[17] Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in the Vijayanagara Empire of India by as early as 1366 AD.[16] From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in India was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 AD by the SultanMuhammad Shah Bahmani.[18]
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The Indian Jaivana cannon
In A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, James Riddick Partington describes Indian rockets, mines and other means of gunpowder warfare:[19]
The Indian war rockets were formidable weapons before such rockets were used in Europe. They had bam-boo rods, a rocket-body lashed to the rod, and iron points. They were directed at the target and fired by lighting the fuse, but the trajectory was rather erratic. The use of mines and counter-mines with explosive charges of gunpowder is mentioned for the times of Akbarand Jahāngir.
Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British.
The news of the successful use of rockets spread through Europe. In England Sir William Congreve began to experiment privately. First, he experimented with a number of black-powder formulas and set down standard specifications of composition. He also standardized construction details and used improved production techniques. Also, his designs made it possible to choose either an explosive (ball charge) or incendiary warhead.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe]][edit]Europe
Earliest picture of a European cannon, "De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum" Walter de Milemete, 1326.
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The hussite tarasnice from 15th century
One theory of how gunpowder came to Europe is that it made its way along the Silk Road through the Middle East; another is that it was brought to Europe during the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century,[26][27] or during the subsequent diplomatic and military contacts (see Franco-Mongol alliance). William of Rubruck, an ambassador to the Mongols in 1254-1255, a personal friend of Roger Bacon, is also often designated as a possible intermediary in the transmission of gunpowder know-how between the East and the West.[27][28]
One of the earliest European references to gunpowder is found in Roger Bacon's Epistola de secretis operibus artiis et naturae from 1267.[27][29] The oldest written recipes for gunpowder in Europe were recorded under the name Marcus Graecus or Mark the Greek between 1280 and 1300.[30] However, the very first time gunpowder was used in the Western world for military purposes was in 1262, when king Alfonso X of Castile set on siege the city of Niebla in Spain, whose Spanish-Arab inhabitants used some sort of primitive gun against the Spaniards.[citation needed]
In 1250, the NorwegianKonungs skuggsjá mentions, in its military chapter, the use of "coal and sulphur" as the best weapon forship-to-ship combat.[31]
Mixtures of coal and sulphur are not explosive, but can produce a slow-burning effect.
In 1326, the earliest known European picture of a gun appeared in a manuscript by Walter de Milemete.[32] On February 11 of that same year, the Signoria of Florence appointed two officers to obtain canones de mettallo and ammunition for the town's defense.[33] A reference from 1331 describes an attack mounted by two Germanic knights on Cividale del Friuli, using gunpowder weapons of some sort.[32] The French raiding party that sacked and burned Southampton in 1338 brought with them a ribaudequin and 48 bolts (but only 3 pounds of gunpowder).[32] The Battle of Crécy in 1346 was one of the first in Europe where cannons were used.[34] In 1350, only four years later, Petrarch wrote that the presence of cannons on the battlefield was 'as common and familiar as other kinds of arms'.[35]
Western European handgun, 1380. 18 cm-long and weighing 1.04 kg, it was fixed to a wooden pole to facilitate manipulation. Musée de l'Armée.
References to gunnis cum telar (guns with handles) were recorded in 1350, and by 1411 it was recorded that John the Good, Duke of Burgundy, had 4000 handguns stored in his armory.[36] However, musketeers and musket-wielding infantrymen were despised in society by the traditional feudalknights, even until the time of Cervantes (1547-1616 AD).[6] At first even Christian authorities made vehement remarks against the use of gunpowder weapons, calling them blasphemous and part of the 'Black Arts'.[37] By the mid-14th century, however, even the army of the Pope would be armed with artillery and gunpowder weapons.[37]
Around the late 14th century, European powdermakers began adding liquid to the constituents of gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of explosion. The powdermakers would then shape the resulting paste of moistened gunpowder—known as mill cake—into "corns," or granules, to dry. Not only did "corned" powder keep better because of its reduced surface area, gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into guns. The main advantage of corning is that the flame spreads between the granules, lighting them all, before significant gas expansion has occurred (when the gunpowder explodes). Without corning much of the powder away from the initial flame would be blown out of the barrel before it burnt. The size of the granules was different for different types of gun. Prior to corning, gunpowder would gradually demix into its constitutive components and was too unreliable for effective use in guns.[38] The same granulation process is used nowadays in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that each tablet contains the same proportion of active ingredient. Before long, powdermakers standardized the process by forcing mill cake through sieves instead of corning powder by hand.[39]
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The first Western image of a battle with cannon, Siege of Orleans,1429.
The 15th through 17th century saw widespread development in gunpowder technology mainly in Europe. Advances in metallurgyled to portable weapons and the development of hand-held firearms such as muskets. Cannon technology in Europe gradually outpaced that of China and these technological improvements transferred back to China through Jesuitmissionaries who were put in charge of cannon manufacture by the late Ming and early Qing emperors.
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Different shapes of corned gunpowder, each with its own function
Shot and gunpowder for military purposes were made by skilled military tradesmen, who later were called firemakers, and who also were required to make fireworks for celebrations of victory or peace. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged, one in Italy and the other at Nürnberg, Germany. The Italian school of pyrotechnics emphasized elaborate fireworks, and the German school stressed scientific advancement. Both schools added significantly to further development of pyrotechnics, and by the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens.[40] At the same time some military men were disguising gray in their beards by dusting them with gunpowder, the antiquary John Aubrey noted in his memoranda.[41]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe-edit] Mining]][edit]Mining
Until the invention of explosives, large rocks could only be broken up by hard labour, or heating with large fires followed by rapid quenching. Black powder was used in civil engineering and mining as early as the 15th century.[42] The earliest surviving record for the use of gunpowder in mines comes from Hungary in 1627.[42] It was introduced to Britain in 1638 by German miners, after which records are numerous.[43] Until the invention of the safety fuse by William Bickford in 1831, the practice was extremely dangerous.[44][45] Another reason for danger was the dense fumes given off and the risk of igniting flammable gas when used in coal mines.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe-edit] Canals]][edit]Canals
The first time gunpowder was used on a large scale in civil engineering was in the construction of the Canal du Midi in SouthernFrance.[45] It was completed in 1681 and linked the Mediterranean sea with the Atlantic with 240 km of canal and 100 locks. Another noteworthy consumer of blackpowder was the Erie canal in New York, which was 585 km long and took eight years to complete, starting in 1817.[45]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe-edit] Tunnel construction]][edit]Tunnel construction
Black powder was also extensively used in railway construction. At first railways followed the contours of the land, or crossed low ground by means of bridges and viaducts; but later railways made extensive use of cuttings and tunnels. One 2400-ft stretch of the 5.4 mi Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway line between London and Bristol consumed a tonne of gunpowder per week for over two years.[45] The 12.9 km long Mont Cenis Tunnel was completed in 13 years starting in 1857, but even with black powder progress was only 25 cm a day until the invention of pneumatic drills sped up the work.
The latter half of the 19th century saw the invention of nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose and smokeless powders, which soon replaced black powder in many applications.
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http://www.mce.k12tn.net/renaissance/inventions.htm Gunpowder, also called black powder, is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. Gunpowder can be made just using potassium nitrate and charcoal (or alternatively without charcoal), but without the sulfur (or coal), the powder is not as strong. It burns rapidly, producing a volume of hot gas made up of carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen, and a solid residue of potassium sulfide.[1] Because of its burning properties and the amount of heat and gas volume that it generates, gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms and as a pyrotechnic composition in fireworks. The term gunpowder also refers broadly to any propellant powder. Modern firearms do not use the traditional gunpowder (black powder) described in this article, but instead use smokeless powder. Antique firearms or replicas of antique firearms are often used withblack powder substitute.
Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds. High explosives detonate, producing a supersonic wave. Ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder is thus less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications, where high explosives such as TNT are preferred.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Characteristics]][edit]Characteristics
The term Black powder was coined in the late 19th century to distinguish prior gunpowder formulations from the new smokeless powders and semi-smokeless powders. Semi-smokeless powders featured bulk volume properties that approximated black powder in terms of chamber pressure when used in firearms, but had significantly reduced amounts of smoke and combustion products; they ranged in color from brownish tan to yellow to white. Most of the bulk semi-smokeless powders ceased to be manufactured in the 1920s.[2][3][4]
Black powder is a granular mixture of
charcoal, which provides carbon and other fuel for the reaction, simplified as carbon (C);
sulfur (S), which, while also serving as a fuel, lowers the temperature required to ignite the mixture, thereby increasing the rate of combustion.
Potassium nitrate is the most important ingredient in terms of both bulk and function because the combustion process releases oxygen from the potassium nitrate, promoting the rapid burning of the other ingredients.[5] To reduce the likelihood of accidental ignition by static electricity, the granules of modern black powder are typically coated with graphite, which prevents the build-up of electrostatic charge.
Charcoal does not consist of pure carbon; rather, it consists of partially pyrolyzed cellulose, in which the wood is not completely decomposed.
The current standard composition for the black powders that are manufactured by pyrotechnicians was adopted as long ago as 1780. Proportions by weight are 75% potassium nitrate (known as saltpeter or saltpetre), 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur.[6] These ratios have varied over the centuries and by country, and can be altered somewhat depending on the purpose of the powder. For instance, power grades of black powder, unsuitable for use in firearms but adequate for blasting rock in quarrying operations, is called blasting powder rather than gunpowder with standard proportions of 70% nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur; blasting powder may be made with the cheaper sodium nitrate substituted for potassium nitrate and proportions may be as low as 40% nitrate, 30% charcoal, and 30% sulfur.[7]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate]][edit]Combustion rate
The burn rate of black powder can be changed by corning. Corning first compresses the fine black powder meal into blocks with a fixed density (1.7 g/cm³). The blocks are then broken up into granules. These granules are then sorted by size to give the various grades of black powder. In the United States, standard grades of black powder run from the coarse Fg grade used in large bore rifles and small cannons, through FFg (medium and smallbore arms such as muskets and fusils), FFFg (smallbore rifles and pistols), and FFFFg (extreme small bore, short pistols and most commonly for priming flintlocks). In the United Kingdom, the gunpowder grains are categorised by mesh size: the BSS sieve mesh size, being the smallest mesh size on which no grains were retained. Recognised grain sizes are Gunpowder G 7, G 20, G 40, and G 90.
A simple, commonly cited, chemical equation for the combustion of black powder is
2 KNO3 + S + 3 C → K2S + N2 + 3 CO2.
A more accurate, but still simplified, equation is[8]
10 KNO3 + 3 S + 8 C → 2 K2CO3 + 3 K2SO4 + 6 CO2 + 5 N2.
The burning of gunpowder does not take place as a single reaction, however, and the byproducts are not easily predicted. One study's results showed that it produced (in order of descending quantities): 55.91% solid products: potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, sulfur, potassium nitrate, potassium thiocyanate, carbon, ammonium carbonate. 42.98% gaseous products: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, methane, 1.11% water.
Black powder made with sodium nitrate tends to be hygroscopic, unlike black powders made from saltpeter. (In this article, "saltpeter"--also spelled "saltpetre"--means potassium nitrate and not any of the other nitrates that are also sometimes called "saltpeter.") Because black powder made with saltpeter is less affected by moisture in the air, it can be stored unsealed for centuries without degradation if it is kept dry. Muzzleloaders have been known to fire after hanging on a wall for decades in a loaded state, provided they remained dry. By contrast, black powder made with sodium nitrate must be sealed from the moisture in the air to remain stable for long periods.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Advantages]][edit]Advantages
In firearms, black powder allows loading by volumetric measure, whereas smokeless powder requires precise measuring of the charge by weight to prevent damage due to overloading, though damage by overloading is still possible with black powder.
In quarrying, high explosives are generally preferred for shattering rock. However, because of its low brisance, black powder causes fewer fractures and results in more usable stone compared to other explosives, making black powder useful for blasting monumental stone such as granite and marble.
Black powder is well suited for blank rounds, signal flares, burst charges, and rescue-line launches. Black powder is also used in fireworks for lifting shells, in rockets as fuel, and in certain special effects.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Disadvantages]][edit]Disadvantages
Black powder has a low energy density compared to modern "smokeless" powders, and thus to achieve high energy loadings, large amounts of black powder are needed with heavy projectiles. In military applications black powder also produces thick smoke as a byproduct, which may give a soldier's location away to an enemy observer. The smoke may also impair aiming for additional shots.
Combustion converts less than half the mass of black powder to gas. The rest ends up as a thick layer of soot inside the barrel. In addition to being a nuisance, the residue from burnt black powder is hygroscopic and with the addition of moisture absorbed from the air, this residue forms a caustic substance. The soot contains potassium oxide or sodium oxide that turns into potassium hydroxide, or sodium hydroxide, which will corrode wrought iron or steel gun barrels. Black powder arms must be well cleaned both inside and out to remove the residue. The Matchlock musket or pistol (an early gun ignition system), as well as the flintlockwould often be unusable in wet weather, due to powder in the pan being exposed and dampened. Because of this unreliability, soldiers carrying muskets, known as musketeers, were armed with additional weapons such as swords or pikes. The bayonetwas developed to allow the musket to be used as a spear, thus eliminating the need for the soldier to carry a secondary weapon.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Transportation]][edit]Transportation
The UN Model Regulations on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods and national transportation authorities, such as United States Department of Transportation, have classified Gunpowder (black powder) as a Group A: Primary explosive substance for shipment because it ignites so easily. Complete manufactured devices containing black powder are usually classified as Group D: Secondary detonating substance, or black powder, or article containing secondary detonating substance, such as firework, class Dmodel rocket engine, etc., for shipment because they are harder to ignite than loose powder. As explosives, they all fall into the category of Class 1.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Energy content]][edit]Energy content
Gunpowder contains 3 megajoules per kilogram, and contains its own oxidant. For comparison, the energy density of TNT is 4.7 megajoules per kilogram, and the energy density of gasoline is 47.2 megajoules per kilogram.[9]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Sulfur-free gunpowder]][edit]Sulfur-free gunpowder
The development of smokeless powders, such as Cordite, in the late 19th century created the need for a spark-sensitive priming charge, such as gunpowder. However, the sulfur content of traditional gunpowders caused corrosion problems with Cordite Mk I and this led to the introduction of a range of sulfur-free gunpowders, of varying grain sizes.[10] They typically contain 70.5 parts of saltpetre and 29.5 parts of charcoal.[10] Like black powder, they were produced in different grain sizes. In United Kingdom, the finest grain was known as sulfur-free mealed powder (SMP). Coarser grains were numbered as sulfur-free gunpowder (SFG n): 'SFG 12', 'SFG 20', 'SFG 40' and 'SFG 90', for example; where the number represents the smallest BSS sieve mesh size on which no grains were retained.
The main purpose of sulfur in gunpowder is to decrease the ignition temperature. A sample reaction for sulfur-free gunpowder would be
4 KNO3 + C7H8O → 3 K2CO3 + 4 CO2 + 2 H2O + 3 N2
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History]][edit]History
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Early Chinese rocket
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A Mongol bomb thrown against a charging Japanesesamurai during the Mongol invasions of Japan after founding the Yuan Dynasty, 1281.
Main article: History of gunpowder
Gunpowder was invented, documented, and used in ancientChina where the Chinese military forces used gunpowder-based weapons technology (i.e. rockets, guns, cannons), and explosives (i.e. grenades and different types of bombs) against theMongols when the Mongols attempted to invade and breach the Chinese city fortifications on the northern borders of China. After the Mongols conquered China and founded the Yuan Dynasty, they used the Chinese gunpowder-based weapons technology in their invasion of Japan. Chinese also used gunpowder to fuel rockets. However, it has also been argued that, like the wheel, gunpowder was "coinvented" or "co-discovered" prior to, simultaneously or slightly after the Chinese, by cultures separated from the Chinese by vast distances, with minimal direct contact between one another.[11][12]
A major problem for academic study is ready access to original sources. Moreover, it is difficult to accurately translate original sources, especially medieval Chinese texts which employ metaphor to describe unexplained phenomena, into contemporary scientific language with its rigidly defined terminology. The difficulty in translation gives rise to errors or loose interpretation bordering on artistic licence.[13][14]
An evaluation of all arguments and thorough literature review is beyond the scope of this article. Rather than take a position, the article will present all arguments to the reader.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] China]][edit]China
ChineseMing Dynasty (1368-1644 AD)matchlockfirearms
Saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations.[15] A Chinese alchemical text dated 492 AD noted saltpetre burnt with a purple flame, providing a practical and reliable means of distinguishing it from other inorganic salts, thus enabling alchemists to evaluate and compare purification techniques.[16] The Chinese word for "gunpowder" is Chinese: 火药/火藥; pinyin: huŏ yào/xuou yɑʊ/, which literally means "Fire Medicine."[17]
The first reference of gunpowder is possibly the passage of the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe, a Taoist text tentatively dated to the mid-9th century AD:[16]
Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down.[18]
By the 9th century Taoist monks or alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality had serendipitously stumbled upon gunpowder.[19][20]
The Chinese "Wu Ching Tsung Yao", written by Tseng Kung-Liang in 1044, provides encyclopedia references to a variety of mixtures which included petrochemicals, as well as garlic and honey. A slow match for flame throwing mechanisms using the siphon principle and for fireworks and rockets are mentioned. Academics argue the Chinese wasted little time in applying gunpowder to warfare, and they produced a variety of gunpowder weapons, including flamethrowers, rockets, bombs, and land mines, before inventing guns as a projectile weapon.[21]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] Middle East]][edit]Middle East
The Sultani Cannon, a very heavy bronze muzzle-loadingcannon of type used by Ottoman Empire in thesiege of Constantinople, 1453 AD.
The Arabs acquired knowledge of gunpowder some time after 1240 AD, but before 1280 AD, by which time Hasan al-Rammah had written, in Arabic, recipes for gunpowder, instructions for the purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries.[22] However, because al-Rammah attributes his material to "his father and forefathers", al-Hassan argues that gunpowder became prevalent in Syria and Egypt by "the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth".
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A picture of a 15th centuryGranadiancannon from the book Al-izz wal rifa'a.
Al-Hassan claims that in the Battle of Ain Jalut of 1260 AD, the Mamluks used against the Mongols in "the first cannon in history" gunpowder formulæ with near-identical ideal composition ratios for explosive gunpowder.[23][24] However, Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world[25] and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early musketeers in their infantry as an example of how gunpowder weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East.[26] Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514.[26]
The earliest surviving documentary evidence for the use of the hand cannon, considered the oldest type of portable firearm and a forerunner of the handgun, are from several Arabic manuscripts dated to the 14th century.[27] Al-Hassan argues that these are based on earlier originals and that they report hand-held cannons being used by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.[24]
Hasan al-Rammah included 107 gunpowder recipes in his text al-Furusiyyah wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya (The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices), 22 of which are for rockets. If one takes the median of 17 of these 22 compositions for rockets (75% nitrates, 9.06% sulfur, and 15.94% carbon), it is near identical with the modern reported ideal gunpowder recipe of 75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulfur, and 15% carbon, although this was already known to Roger Bacon[24]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] Mainland Europe]][edit]Mainland Europe
C. F. Temler interprets Peter, Bishop of Leon, as reporting the use of cannon in Seville in 1248 AD.[28]
In Norwegian the Konungs skuggsjá of 1250 AD mentions in its military chapter, the use of two key ingredients: "coal and sulfur" as the best weapons for ship-to-ship combat.[29]
Dated around 1257 AD, among the earliest extant written references to gunpowder in Europe, are Roger Bacon's texts Epistola, "De Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae et de Nullitate Magiae," dated variously between 1248[30] and 1257,[31] he states:[30]
We can, with saltpeter and other substances, compose artificially a fire that can be launched over long distances... By only using a very small quantity of this material much light can be created accompanied by a horrible fracas. It is possible with it to destroy a town or an army ... In order to produce this artificial lightning and thunder it is necessary to take saltpeter, sulfur, and Luru Vopo Vir Can Utriet.
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Cannons forged in 1667 AD at the Fortín de La Galera, Nueva Esparta, Venezuela.
The last part has been interpreted as an elaborate coded anagram for the quantities needed, but other academics holding contrary viewpoints argue this may be erroneous transcription of a passage read with much difficulty.[32][33]
Some authors maintain that around 1261, Roger did develop the ideal formula for gunpowder (75% of saltpeter, 15% of carbon and 10% of sulfur)[34]
In the Opus Maior of 1267 AD, Bacon describes firecrackers:[32]
a child’s toy of sound and fire and explosion made in various parts of the world with powder of saltpetre, sulfur and charcoal of hazelwood.[35]
The Liber Ignium, or Book of Fires, attributed to Marcus Graecus, is a collection of incendiary recipes, including some gunpowder recipes. Partington dates the gunpowder recipes to approximately 1300.[36] One recipe for "flying fire" (ingis volatilis) involves saltpetre, sulfur, and colophonium, which, when inserted into a reed or hollow wood, "flies away suddenly and burns up everything." Another recipe, for artificial "thunder", specifies a mixture of one pound native sulfur, two pounds linden or willow charcoal, and six pounds of saltpeter.[37] Another specifies a 1:3:9 ratio.[37]
Some of the gunpowder recipes of De Mirabilibus Mundi of Albertus Magnus are identical to the recipes of the Liber Ignium, and according to Partington, "may have been taken from that work, rather than conversely."[38] Partington suggests that some of the book may have been compiled by Albert's students, "but since it is found in thirteenth century manuscripts, it may well be by Albert."[38] Albertus Magnus died in 1280 AD.
A common German folk-tale is of the German priest/monk named Berthold Schwarz who independently invented gunpowder, thus earning it the German name Schwarzpulver or in English Schwarz's powder. Schwarz is also German for black so this folk-tale, while likely containing elements of truth, is considered problematic.
The major and uniquely European advancement of gunpowder was corning: the addition of moisture to the gunpowder to form regular greater grains which much increased the reliability and consistency of gunpowder. This occurred around the late 15th century CE, as European powdermakers began adding moisture to gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of dust explosion. The powdermakers would then shape the resulting mush of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry.
The new "corned" powder remained potent and more reliable to store as it was far less hygroscopic than the former powder (due to net reduced surface area). Gunners also found it was more powerful and easier to load measures of it into guns. An advantage of corning is that the combustion flame spreads evenly between the grains, thus igniting all grains before significant gas expansion (when the gunpowder actually "explodes"). Gunpowder not corned results in much unburnt powder blown away from the ignition flame and combustion chamber due to localized miniature gas expansions within the powder.
Europeans innovated by experimentation and discovering different kernel sizes combusted at differing rates, and thus were more suitable for one gun or for another. Molerus notes that without corning, gunpowder, like all dry mixtures, has a tendency to gradually separate back to its components and thus was too unreliable for effective use in guns as mixtures would not be of uniform composition, noting the use of corning technique is commonplace in the modern pharmaceutical industry to ensure uniform proportions of active ingredients for each tablet.[39]
Shot and gunpowder for military purposes were made by skilled military tradesmen, later called firemakers, and were also required to craft fireworks for celebrations of victory or peace. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged, one in Italy and the other at Nuremberg, Germany. The Italian school of pyrotechnics emphasized elaborate fireworks, and the German school stressed scientific advancement. Both schools added significantly to further development of pyrotechnics, and by the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens.[40]
By 1788, as a result of the reforms for which Lavoisier was mainly responsible, France had become self-sufficient in saltpeter, and its gunpowder had become not only widely considered the best in Europe but more importantly, inexpensive.[41]
The introduction of smokeless powder in the late 19th century led to the contraction of the gunpowder industry.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] British Isles]][edit]British Isles
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The old Powder or Pouther magazine dating from 1642 AD, built by order of James VI.Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
Gunpowder production in Britain appears to have started in the mid 13th century AD with the aim of supplying The English Crown.[42] Records show that gunpowder was being made, in England, in 1346, at the Tower of London; a powder house existed at the Tower in 1461; and in 1515 three King's gunpowder makers worked there.[42] Gunpowder was also being made or stored at other Royal castles, such as Portchester. By the early 14th century, according to N.J.G. Pounds's study The Medieval Castle in England and Wales, many English castles had been deserted and others were crumbling. Their military significance faded except on the borders. Gunpowder had made smaller castles useless.[43] Henry VIII of England was short of gunpowder when he invaded France in 1544 AD and England needed to import gunpowder via the port of Antwerp.[42]
The English Civil War, 1642-1645 AD, led to an expansion of the gunpowder industry, with the repeal of the Royal Patent in August 1641.[42]
Two British physicist, Andrew Noble and Frederick Abel, worked to improve the properties of blackpowder during the late 19th century. This formed the basis for the Noble-Abel gas equation for internal ballistics.[44]
The introduction of smokeless powder in the late 19th century led to a contraction of the gunpowder industry. After the end of World War I, the majority of the United Kingdom gunpowder manufacturers merged into a single company, "Explosives Trades limited"; and number of sites were closed down, including those in Ireland. This company became Nobel Industries Limited; and in 1926 became a founding member of Imperial Chemical Industries. The Home Office removed gunpowder from its list of Permitted Explosives; and shortly afterwards, on 31 December 1931, the former Curtis & Harvey's Glynneath gunpowder factory atPontneddfechan, in Wales, closed down, and it was demolished by fire in 1932.[45]
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gun powder storing barrels atMartello tower in Point Pleasant Park
The last remaining gunpowder mill at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey was damaged by a German parachute minein 1941 and it never reopened.[10] This was followed by the closure of the gunpowder section at the Royal Ordnance Factory,ROF Chorley, the section was closed and demolished at the end of World War II; and ICI Nobel's Roslin gunpowder factory which closed in 1954.[10][46]
This left the sole United Kingdom gunpowder factory at ICI Nobel's Ardeer site in Scotland; it too closed in October 1976.[10] Since then gunpowder has been imported into the United Kingdom. In the late 1970s / early 1980s gunpowder was bought from eastern Europe, particularly from what was then the East Germany and former Yugoslavia.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] India]][edit]India
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A 17th century Tanjore Nayak kingdom's forge-welded iron cannon, at Thanjavur's eastern entrance (India).
Gunpowder had arrived in India by the mid-14th century, perhaps introduced by the Mongols as early as the mid-13th century.[47][48]
It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a dazzlingpyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258 CE.[49] Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in the Vijayanagara Empire of India by as early as 1366 AD.[49] From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in India was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 AD by Sultan Muhammad Shah Bahmani.[50]
By the 16th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore,Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad.[51] Guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut (1504 AD) and Diu (1533 AD).[52] Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century.[53] Bengal and Mālwaparticipated in saltpeter production.[53] The Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English used Chāpra as a center of saltpeter refining.[54]
War rockets, mines and counter mines using gunpowder were used in India by the time of Akbar and Jahangir.[52] Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), a Persian-Indianpolymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar the Great in the Mughal Empire, invented an autocannon, early multi-shot gun. As opposed to the polybolos and repeating crossbows used earlier inancient Greece and China, respectively, Shirazi's rapid-firing gun had multiple gun barrels that fired hand cannons loaded with gunpowder.[55]
Both Hyder Ali and his son Tippu Sultan used black powder technology in iron-cased war rockets with considerable effect against the British, which inspired the development of the Congreve rocket.[56]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] Indonesia]][edit]Indonesia
The JavaneseMajapahit Empire is argued to have grown to span most of modern day ASEAN due to its Javanese mastery of bronze-smithing and unique within the immediate region to the Majapahit court, the technology and mass manufacture (via cottage industries which contributed to a central arsenal). Documentary and archeological evidence indicate that Arab or Indian traders introduced gunpowder, gonnes, muskets, blunderbusses, and cannon to the Javanese, Acehnese, and Batak via long established commercial trade routes around the early to mid 14th century CE.[57] Early European aggressors of Portugal and Spain were unpleasantly surprised and outgunned on many occasions.[58] The resurgent Singhasari Empire overtook Sriwijayaand later emerged as the Majapahit who rigidly established fire-arms and cannonade as a feature of warfare.[59]
Circa 1540 CE the Javanese always alert for new weapons found the newly arrived Portuguese weaponry superior to that of the locally made variants. The Javanese bronze breech-loaded swivel-gun, erroneously termed the lantaka, more correctly known as a meriam was used ubiquitously by the Majapahit navy and unfortunately pirates and rival lords. The demise of the Majapahit empire and the flight of disaffected skilled bronze cannon-smiths to Brunei, modern Sumatra and Malaysia, and the Philippines lead to near universal use of the swivel-gun, especially on trade vessels to protect against prevalent marauding pirates, especially in theMakassar Strait.
A Chinese pirate or commercial shipwreck site unearthed a double-ended swivel gun, which enabled swift firing: one barrel would fire whiles its opposite would be reloaded, though this is a rare and unique piece. Other archeological finds have unearthed some triple-barrel and some double-barrel swivel-guns, which were not widely duplicated.
The saltpetre harvesting was recorded by Dutch and German travelers as being common to even the smallest villages and collected from the decomposition process of large goat dung hills specifically piled for collection this saltpetre, a most unpleasant job. Saltpetre must be remembered by today's reader as being a key food preservative agent in a period of no refrigeration.
The Dutch punishment for possession of unpermitted gunpowder appears to have been amputation.[60]
Ownership and manufacture of gunpowder was later prohibited by the colonial Dutch occupiers.[57] Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, from his The History of Java relates the process of powder manufacture, perhaps of noteworthy relevance considering at the time it was a military-related craft and not always recorded:
the best sulphur is supplied from a crater from a mountain near the straits of Bali...in caverns in irregularly formed beds of earth, which being impregnated with the native nitre, saturated with the evacuation of the enumerous bats that haunt these caves is mixed with a compound of wood ashes, supplies the liquid that is boiled in large kettles and afterward left to cool and crystallize.[59]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Manufacturing technology]][edit]Manufacturing technology
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Edge-runner mill in a restored mill, atEleutherian Mills
For the most powerful black powder meal, a woodcharcoal is used. The best wood for the purpose is Pacific willow,[61] but others such as alder or buckthorn can be used. The ingredients are mixed as thoroughly as possible. This is achieved using a ball mill with non-sparking grinding apparatus (e.g., bronze or lead), or similar device. Historically, a marble or limestone edge runner mill, running on a limestone bed was used in Great Britain; however, by the mid 19th century CE this had changed to either an iron shod stone wheel or a cast iron wheel running on an iron bed.[6] The mix is sometimes dampened with alcohol or water during grinding to prevent accidental ignition.
Around the late 14th century CE, European powdermakers began adding damp to the constituents of gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of explosion.[62] The powdermakers would then shape the resulting paste of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry. Not only did corned powder keep better because of its reduced surface area, gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into guns. Before long, powdermakers standardized the process by forcing mill cake through sieves instead of corning powder by hand.
During the 18th century gunpowder factories became increasingly dependent on mechanical energy.[63]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Other uses]][edit]Other uses
Besides its use as an explosive, gunpowder has been occasionally employed for other purposes; after the Battle of Aspern-Essling(1809), the surgeon of the Napoleonic Army Larrey combated the lack of food for the wounded under his care by preparing abouillon of horse meat seasoned with gunpowder for lack of salt.[64][65] It was also used for sterilizing on ships when there was no alcohol. Christiaan Huygens experimented with gunpowder in 1673 in an early attempt to build an internal combustion engine, but he did not succeed in making a practical engine. Fireworks and Firecrackers also use gunpowder but use different brands and different chemicals.
Black powder is still used in delay-trains in modern arms. For instance, in a hand grenade, a mechanical striker ignites a percussion primer which ignites a slow black powder delay. The delay burns a few seconds until it gets to the high explosive primary, which detonates, initiating the grenade fill explosive, thus fragmenting the grenade
Gunpowder was probably used for the first time in Europe during the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Historians do not know if this invention was carried from China to Europe or in The Europeans invented it independently.
The invention of gunpowder greatly changed the way men fought. The Medival knight could not defend himself against firearms and cannons. Knights were replaced by the foot soldier who carried firearms.
Between 1670 and 1729 William Congreve developed rockets to use during wars.
In the seventeenth century the gun was developed by the English and Dutch armies.
Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons
by Chris Freeman
Gunpowder was probably used for the first time in Europe during the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Historians do not know if this invention was carried from China to Europe or in The Europeans invented it independently.
The invention of gunpowder greatly changed the way men fought. The Medival knight could not defend himself against firearms and cannons. Knights were replaced by the foot soldier who carried firearms.
Between 1670 and 1729 William Congreve developed rockets to use during wars.
In the seventeenth century the gun was developed by the English
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Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Chinese Wujing Zongyao of 1044 AD.
Gunpowder was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the invention of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin,smokeless powder and TNT in the 19th century. Prior to the invention of gunpowder, many incendiary and burning devices had been used, including Greek fire.
Gunpowder is considered one of Four Great Inventions of ancient China. Around 1240 the Arabs acquired knowledge of saltpeter ("Chinese snow") from the East, perhaps through India. They knew of gunpowder soon afterward, and not long after learned about fireworks ("Chinese flowers") and rockets ("Chinese arrows").
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[hide][[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Islamic and Hindu worlds]][edit] Islamic and Hindu worlds
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Islamic and Hindu worlds-edit] Islamic world]][edit] Islamic world
The bronze Dardanelles Gun, cast in 1464 for defense of theDardanelles strait
Further information: Inventions in the Muslim world and Alchemy and chemistry in Islam
The Arabs acquired knowledge of gunpowder some time after 1240, but before 1280, by which time Hassan al-Rammah had written, in Arabic, recipes for gunpowder, instructions for the purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries.[1] However, because al-Rammah attributes his material to "his father and forefathers", al-Hassan argues that gunpowder became prevalent in Syria and Egypt by "the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth".
C. F. Temler interprets Peter, Bishop of Leon, as reporting the use of cannon in Seville in 1248.[2] Al-Hassan claims that "the first cannon in history"[3] was used by the Mamluks against the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260;[4] Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world[5] and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early riflemen in their infantry as an example of how gunpowder weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East.[6] Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514.[6]
Though the consensus is that gunpowder originated in China, others have suggested that gunpowder might possibly have been invented by the Arabs, by Roger Bacon, or by Berthold Schwarz.[7] The general notion is that Arabic alchemy and chemistry did not know of saltpetre until the 13th century;[8] however, Ahmad Y Hassan argues that Arabs were purifying saltpetre by the 11th century[9] and that the earliest known military application of saltpetre (known as barud in Arabic) in the Islamic world is described in an Arabic manuscript written some time before 1225.[10]
A picture of a 15th centuryAndalusian Arab cannon from the book Al-izz wal rifa'a.
According to Johnson (2008), the Arabs "had developed the first real gun, a bamboo tube reinforced with iron, which used a charge of black powder to fire an arrow" some time before 1300; however, according to Chase (2003:1), the Arabs only obtained firearms in the 14th century and all evidence points to Chinese origins.
Hasan al-Rammah included 107 gunpowder recipes in his al-furusiyyah wa al-manasib al-harbiyya (The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices), 22 of which are for rockets. If one takes the median of 17 of these 22 compositions for rockets (75% nitrates, 9.06% sulphur and 15.94% carbon), it is almost identical with the reported ideal recipe (75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulphur, and 15% carbon).[4]
Hasan al-Rammah also describes the purifying of saltpetre using the chemical processes of solution and crystallization. This was the first clear method for the purification of saltpetre.[11] The earliest torpedo was also first described in 1270 by Hasan al-Rammah in The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices, which illustrated a torpedo running with a rocket system filled with explosive materials and having three firing points.[12][13]
The earliest surviving documentary evidence for the use of the hand cannon, considered the oldest type of portable firearm and a forerunner of the handgun, are from several Arabic manuscripts dated to the 14th century.[14] Al-Hassan argues that these are based on earlier originals and that they report hand-held cannons being used by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.[4]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Islamic and Hindu worlds-edit] India]][edit] India
Further information: History of Indian science and technology and List of Indian inventionsA 17th century forge-welded iron cannon, at Thanjavur's eastern entrance (India), built during the reign of Raghunatha Nayak (1600 - 1645 CE).
Chinese gunpowder technology is believed to have arrived in India by the mid-14th century, but could have been introduced much earlier by the Mongols, who had conquered both China and India, perhaps as early as the mid-13th century. The unification of a large single Mongol Empire resulted in the free transmission of previously top-secret Chinese technology into aMongol conquered India. Regardless, it is believed that the Mongols used Chinese gunpowder weapons during their invasion and subsequent conquest of India.[15]
It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a dazzlingpyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258 AD.[16] As a part of an embassy to India by Timurid leader Shah Rukh (1405–1447), 'Abd al-Razzaq mentioned naphtha-throwers mounted on elephants and a variety of pyrotechnics put on display.[17] Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in the Vijayanagara Empire of India by as early as 1366 AD.[16] From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in India was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 AD by the SultanMuhammad Shah Bahmani.[18]
The Indian Jaivana cannon
In A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, James Riddick Partington describes Indian rockets, mines and other means of gunpowder warfare:[19]
An illustration from the Akbarnamawritten by Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak(1551-1602) depicts a gun in Akbar's court (bottom center).
By the 16th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore,Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad.[20] Guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut (1504) and Diu (1533).[21]Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century.[22] Bengal and Mālwa participated in saltpeter production.[22] The Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English used Chāpra as a center of saltpeter refining.[23]
Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), a Persian-Indian polymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar the Great in theMughal Empire, developed an early multi gun shot. As opposed to the polybolos and repeating crossbows used earlier inancient Greece and China, respectively, Shirazi's rapid-firing gun had multiple gun barrels that fired hand cannons loaded with gunpowder.[24]
In Encyclopedia Britannica (2008), Stephen Oliver Fought & John F. Guilmartin, Jr. describe the gunpowder technology in 18th century India, with reference to the rocket artillery used by the Kingdom of Mysore (as described in the Fathul Mujahidin) and its influence on the Congreve rocket:[25]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe]][edit] Europe
Earliest picture of a European cannon, "De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum" Walter de Milemete, 1326.
The hussite tarasnice from 15th century
One theory of how gunpowder came to Europe is that it made its way along the Silk Road through the Middle East; another is that it was brought to Europe during the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century,[26][27] or during the subsequent diplomatic and military contacts (see Franco-Mongol alliance). William of Rubruck, an ambassador to the Mongols in 1254-1255, a personal friend of Roger Bacon, is also often designated as a possible intermediary in the transmission of gunpowder know-how between the East and the West.[27][28]
One of the earliest European references to gunpowder is found in Roger Bacon's Epistola de secretis operibus artiis et naturae from 1267.[27][29] The oldest written recipes for gunpowder in Europe were recorded under the name Marcus Graecus or Mark the Greek between 1280 and 1300.[30] However, the very first time gunpowder was used in the Western world for military purposes was in 1262, when king Alfonso X of Castile set on siege the city of Niebla in Spain, whose Spanish-Arab inhabitants used some sort of primitive gun against the Spaniards.[citation needed]
In 1250, the Norwegian Konungs skuggsjá mentions, in its military chapter, the use of "coal and sulphur" as the best weapon forship-to-ship combat.[31]
Mixtures of coal and sulphur are not explosive, but can produce a slow-burning effect.
In 1326, the earliest known European picture of a gun appeared in a manuscript by Walter de Milemete.[32] On February 11 of that same year, the Signoria of Florence appointed two officers to obtain canones de mettallo and ammunition for the town's defense.[33] A reference from 1331 describes an attack mounted by two Germanic knights on Cividale del Friuli, using gunpowder weapons of some sort.[32] The French raiding party that sacked and burned Southampton in 1338 brought with them a ribaudequin and 48 bolts (but only 3 pounds of gunpowder).[32] The Battle of Crécy in 1346 was one of the first in Europe where cannons were used.[34] In 1350, only four years later, Petrarch wrote that the presence of cannons on the battlefield was 'as common and familiar as other kinds of arms'.[35]
Western European handgun, 1380. 18 cm-long and weighing 1.04 kg, it was fixed to a wooden pole to facilitate manipulation. Musée de l'Armée.
References to gunnis cum telar (guns with handles) were recorded in 1350, and by 1411 it was recorded that John the Good, Duke of Burgundy, had 4000 handguns stored in his armory.[36] However, musketeers and musket-wielding infantrymen were despised in society by the traditional feudal knights, even until the time of Cervantes (1547-1616 AD).[6] At first even Christian authorities made vehement remarks against the use of gunpowder weapons, calling them blasphemous and part of the 'Black Arts'.[37] By the mid-14th century, however, even the army of the Pope would be armed with artillery and gunpowder weapons.[37]
Around the late 14th century, European powdermakers began adding liquid to the constituents of gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of explosion. The powdermakers would then shape the resulting paste of moistened gunpowder—known as mill cake—into "corns," or granules, to dry. Not only did "corned" powder keep better because of its reduced surface area, gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into guns. The main advantage of corning is that the flame spreads between the granules, lighting them all, before significant gas expansion has occurred (when the gunpowder explodes). Without corning much of the powder away from the initial flame would be blown out of the barrel before it burnt. The size of the granules was different for different types of gun. Prior to corning, gunpowder would gradually demix into its constitutive components and was too unreliable for effective use in guns.[38] The same granulation process is used nowadays in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that each tablet contains the same proportion of active ingredient. Before long, powdermakers standardized the process by forcing mill cake through sieves instead of corning powder by hand.[39]
The first Western image of a battle with cannon, Siege of Orleans,1429.
The 15th through 17th century saw widespread development in gunpowder technology mainly in Europe. Advances in metallurgyled to portable weapons and the development of hand-held firearms such as muskets. Cannon technology in Europe gradually outpaced that of China and these technological improvements transferred back to China through Jesuit missionaries who were put in charge of cannon manufacture by the late Ming and early Qing emperors.
Different shapes of corned gunpowder, each with its own function
Shot and gunpowder for military purposes were made by skilled military tradesmen, who later were called firemakers, and who also were required to make fireworks for celebrations of victory or peace. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged, one in Italy and the other at Nürnberg, Germany. The Italian school of pyrotechnics emphasized elaborate fireworks, and the German school stressed scientific advancement. Both schools added significantly to further development of pyrotechnics, and by the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens.[40] At the same time some military men were disguising gray in their beards by dusting them with gunpowder, the antiquary John Aubrey noted in his memoranda.[41]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe-edit] Mining]][edit] Mining
Until the invention of explosives, large rocks could only be broken up by hard labour, or heating with large fires followed by rapid quenching. Black powder was used in civil engineering and mining as early as the 15th century.[42] The earliest surviving record for the use of gunpowder in mines comes from Hungary in 1627.[42] It was introduced to Britain in 1638 by German miners, after which records are numerous.[43] Until the invention of the safety fuse by William Bickford in 1831, the practice was extremely dangerous.[44][45] Another reason for danger was the dense fumes given off and the risk of igniting flammable gas when used in coal mines.[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe-edit] Canals]][edit] Canals
The first time gunpowder was used on a large scale in civil engineering was in the construction of the Canal du Midi in SouthernFrance.[45] It was completed in 1681 and linked the Mediterranean sea with the Atlantic with 240 km of canal and 100 locks. Another noteworthy consumer of blackpowder was the Erie canal in New York, which was 585 km long and took eight years to complete, starting in 1817.[45][[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Europe-edit] Tunnel construction]][edit] Tunnel construction
Black powder was also extensively used in railway construction. At first railways followed the contours of the land, or crossed low ground by means of bridges and viaducts; but later railways made extensive use of cuttings and tunnels. One 2400-ft stretch of the 5.4 mi Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway line between London and Bristol consumed a tonne of gunpowder per week for over two years.[45] The 12.9 km long Mont Cenis Tunnel was completed in 13 years starting in 1857, but even with black powder progress was only 25 cm a day until the invention of pneumatic drills sped up the work.The latter half of the 19th century saw the invention of nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose and smokeless powders, which soon replaced black powder in many applications.
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Gunpowder, also called black powder, is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. Gunpowder can be made just using potassium nitrate and charcoal (or alternatively without charcoal), but without the sulfur (or coal), the powder is not as strong. It burns rapidly, producing a volume of hot gas made up of carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen, and a solid residue of potassium sulfide.[1] Because of its burning properties and the amount of heat and gas volume that it generates, gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms and as a pyrotechnic composition in fireworks. The term gunpowder also refers broadly to any propellant powder. Modern firearms do not use the traditional gunpowder (black powder) described in this article, but instead use smokeless powder. Antique firearms or replicas of antique firearms are often used withblack powder substitute.
Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds. High explosives detonate, producing a supersonic wave. Ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder is thus less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications, where high explosives such as TNT are preferred.
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[hide][[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Characteristics]][edit] Characteristics
The term Black powder was coined in the late 19th century to distinguish prior gunpowder formulations from the new smokeless powders and semi-smokeless powders. Semi-smokeless powders featured bulk volume properties that approximated black powder in terms of chamber pressure when used in firearms, but had significantly reduced amounts of smoke and combustion products; they ranged in color from brownish tan to yellow to white. Most of the bulk semi-smokeless powders ceased to be manufactured in the 1920s.[2][3][4]Black powder is a granular mixture of
- a nitrate, typically potassium nitrate (KNO3), which supplies oxygen for the reaction;
- charcoal, which provides carbon and other fuel for the reaction, simplified as carbon (C);
- sulfur (S), which, while also serving as a fuel, lowers the temperature required to ignite the mixture, thereby increasing the rate of combustion.
Potassium nitrate is the most important ingredient in terms of both bulk and function because the combustion process releases oxygen from the potassium nitrate, promoting the rapid burning of the other ingredients.[5] To reduce the likelihood of accidental ignition by static electricity, the granules of modern black powder are typically coated with graphite, which prevents the build-up of electrostatic charge.Charcoal does not consist of pure carbon; rather, it consists of partially pyrolyzed cellulose, in which the wood is not completely decomposed.
The current standard composition for the black powders that are manufactured by pyrotechnicians was adopted as long ago as 1780. Proportions by weight are 75% potassium nitrate (known as saltpeter or saltpetre), 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur.[6] These ratios have varied over the centuries and by country, and can be altered somewhat depending on the purpose of the powder. For instance, power grades of black powder, unsuitable for use in firearms but adequate for blasting rock in quarrying operations, is called blasting powder rather than gunpowder with standard proportions of 70% nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur; blasting powder may be made with the cheaper sodium nitrate substituted for potassium nitrate and proportions may be as low as 40% nitrate, 30% charcoal, and 30% sulfur.[7]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate]][edit] Combustion rate
The burn rate of black powder can be changed by corning. Corning first compresses the fine black powder meal into blocks with a fixed density (1.7 g/cm³). The blocks are then broken up into granules. These granules are then sorted by size to give the various grades of black powder. In the United States, standard grades of black powder run from the coarse Fg grade used in large bore rifles and small cannons, through FFg (medium and smallbore arms such as muskets and fusils), FFFg (smallbore rifles and pistols), and FFFFg (extreme small bore, short pistols and most commonly for priming flintlocks). In the United Kingdom, the gunpowder grains are categorised by mesh size: the BSS sieve mesh size, being the smallest mesh size on which no grains were retained. Recognised grain sizes are Gunpowder G 7, G 20, G 40, and G 90.A simple, commonly cited, chemical equation for the combustion of black powder is
2 KNO3 + S + 3 C → K2S + N2 + 3 CO2.
A more accurate, but still simplified, equation is[8]
10 KNO3 + 3 S + 8 C → 2 K2CO3 + 3 K2SO4 + 6 CO2 + 5 N2.
The burning of gunpowder does not take place as a single reaction, however, and the byproducts are not easily predicted. One study's results showed that it produced (in order of descending quantities): 55.91% solid products: potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, sulfur, potassium nitrate, potassium thiocyanate, carbon, ammonium carbonate. 42.98% gaseous products: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, methane, 1.11% water.
Black powder made with sodium nitrate tends to be hygroscopic, unlike black powders made from saltpeter. (In this article, "saltpeter"--also spelled "saltpetre"--means potassium nitrate and not any of the other nitrates that are also sometimes called "saltpeter.") Because black powder made with saltpeter is less affected by moisture in the air, it can be stored unsealed for centuries without degradation if it is kept dry. Muzzleloaders have been known to fire after hanging on a wall for decades in a loaded state, provided they remained dry. By contrast, black powder made with sodium nitrate must be sealed from the moisture in the air to remain stable for long periods.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Advantages]][edit] Advantages
In firearms, black powder allows loading by volumetric measure, whereas smokeless powder requires precise measuring of the charge by weight to prevent damage due to overloading, though damage by overloading is still possible with black powder.In quarrying, high explosives are generally preferred for shattering rock. However, because of its low brisance, black powder causes fewer fractures and results in more usable stone compared to other explosives, making black powder useful for blasting monumental stone such as granite and marble.
Black powder is well suited for blank rounds, signal flares, burst charges, and rescue-line launches. Black powder is also used in fireworks for lifting shells, in rockets as fuel, and in certain special effects.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Disadvantages]][edit] Disadvantages
Black powder has a low energy density compared to modern "smokeless" powders, and thus to achieve high energy loadings, large amounts of black powder are needed with heavy projectiles. In military applications black powder also produces thick smoke as a byproduct, which may give a soldier's location away to an enemy observer. The smoke may also impair aiming for additional shots.Combustion converts less than half the mass of black powder to gas. The rest ends up as a thick layer of soot inside the barrel. In addition to being a nuisance, the residue from burnt black powder is hygroscopic and with the addition of moisture absorbed from the air, this residue forms a caustic substance. The soot contains potassium oxide or sodium oxide that turns into potassium hydroxide, or sodium hydroxide, which will corrode wrought iron or steel gun barrels. Black powder arms must be well cleaned both inside and out to remove the residue. The Matchlock musket or pistol (an early gun ignition system), as well as the flintlockwould often be unusable in wet weather, due to powder in the pan being exposed and dampened. Because of this unreliability, soldiers carrying muskets, known as musketeers, were armed with additional weapons such as swords or pikes. The bayonetwas developed to allow the musket to be used as a spear, thus eliminating the need for the soldier to carry a secondary weapon.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Transportation]][edit] Transportation
The UN Model Regulations on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods and national transportation authorities, such as United States Department of Transportation, have classified Gunpowder (black powder) as a Group A: Primary explosive substance for shipment because it ignites so easily. Complete manufactured devices containing black powder are usually classified as Group D: Secondary detonating substance, or black powder, or article containing secondary detonating substance, such as firework, class Dmodel rocket engine, etc., for shipment because they are harder to ignite than loose powder. As explosives, they all fall into the category of Class 1.[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Combustion rate-edit] Energy content]][edit] Energy content
Gunpowder contains 3 megajoules per kilogram, and contains its own oxidant. For comparison, the energy density of TNT is 4.7 megajoules per kilogram, and the energy density of gasoline is 47.2 megajoules per kilogram.[9][[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Sulfur-free gunpowder]][edit] Sulfur-free gunpowder
The development of smokeless powders, such as Cordite, in the late 19th century created the need for a spark-sensitive priming charge, such as gunpowder. However, the sulfur content of traditional gunpowders caused corrosion problems with Cordite Mk I and this led to the introduction of a range of sulfur-free gunpowders, of varying grain sizes.[10] They typically contain 70.5 parts of saltpetre and 29.5 parts of charcoal.[10] Like black powder, they were produced in different grain sizes. In United Kingdom, the finest grain was known as sulfur-free mealed powder (SMP). Coarser grains were numbered as sulfur-free gunpowder (SFG n): 'SFG 12', 'SFG 20', 'SFG 40' and 'SFG 90', for example; where the number represents the smallest BSS sieve mesh size on which no grains were retained.The main purpose of sulfur in gunpowder is to decrease the ignition temperature. A sample reaction for sulfur-free gunpowder would be
4 KNO3 + C7H8O → 3 K2CO3 + 4 CO2 + 2 H2O + 3 N2
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History]][edit] History
Early Chinese rocket
A Mongol bomb thrown against a charging Japanese samurai during the Mongol invasions of Japan after founding the Yuan Dynasty, 1281.
Main article: History of gunpowder
Gunpowder was invented, documented, and used in ancient China where the Chinese military forces used gunpowder-based weapons technology (i.e. rockets, guns, cannons), and explosives (i.e. grenades and different types of bombs) against theMongols when the Mongols attempted to invade and breach the Chinese city fortifications on the northern borders of China. After the Mongols conquered China and founded the Yuan Dynasty, they used the Chinese gunpowder-based weapons technology in their invasion of Japan. Chinese also used gunpowder to fuel rockets. However, it has also been argued that, like the wheel, gunpowder was "coinvented" or "co-discovered" prior to, simultaneously or slightly after the Chinese, by cultures separated from the Chinese by vast distances, with minimal direct contact between one another.[11][12]
A major problem for academic study is ready access to original sources. Moreover, it is difficult to accurately translate original sources, especially medieval Chinese texts which employ metaphor to describe unexplained phenomena, into contemporary scientific language with its rigidly defined terminology. The difficulty in translation gives rise to errors or loose interpretation bordering on artistic licence.[13][14]
An evaluation of all arguments and thorough literature review is beyond the scope of this article. Rather than take a position, the article will present all arguments to the reader.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] China]][edit] China
Further information: Four Great Inventions of ancient China, List of Chinese inventions, and History of science and technology in ChinaChinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD)matchlock firearms
Saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations.[15] A Chinese alchemical text dated 492 AD noted saltpetre burnt with a purple flame, providing a practical and reliable means of distinguishing it from other inorganic salts, thus enabling alchemists to evaluate and compare purification techniques.[16] The Chinese word for "gunpowder" is Chinese: 火药/火藥; pinyin: huŏ yào /xuou yɑʊ/, which literally means "Fire Medicine."[17]
The first reference of gunpowder is possibly the passage of the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe, a Taoist text tentatively dated to the mid-9th century AD:[16]
- Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down.[18]
By the 9th century Taoist monks or alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality had serendipitously stumbled upon gunpowder.[19][20]The Chinese "Wu Ching Tsung Yao", written by Tseng Kung-Liang in 1044, provides encyclopedia references to a variety of mixtures which included petrochemicals, as well as garlic and honey. A slow match for flame throwing mechanisms using the siphon principle and for fireworks and rockets are mentioned. Academics argue the Chinese wasted little time in applying gunpowder to warfare, and they produced a variety of gunpowder weapons, including flamethrowers, rockets, bombs, and land mines, before inventing guns as a projectile weapon.[21]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] Middle East]][edit] Middle East
Main articles: Inventions in the Islamic world and Alchemy and chemistry in IslamThe Sultani Cannon, a very heavy bronze muzzle-loading cannon of type used by Ottoman Empire in thesiege of Constantinople, 1453 AD.
The Arabs acquired knowledge of gunpowder some time after 1240 AD, but before 1280 AD, by which time Hasan al-Rammah had written, in Arabic, recipes for gunpowder, instructions for the purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries.[22] However, because al-Rammah attributes his material to "his father and forefathers", al-Hassan argues that gunpowder became prevalent in Syria and Egypt by "the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth".
A picture of a 15th centuryGranadian cannon from the book Al-izz wal rifa'a.
Al-Hassan claims that in the Battle of Ain Jalut of 1260 AD, the Mamluks used against the Mongols in "the first cannon in history" gunpowder formulæ with near-identical ideal composition ratios for explosive gunpowder.[23][24] However, Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world[25] and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early musketeers in their infantry as an example of how gunpowder weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East.[26] Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514.[26]
The earliest surviving documentary evidence for the use of the hand cannon, considered the oldest type of portable firearm and a forerunner of the handgun, are from several Arabic manuscripts dated to the 14th century.[27] Al-Hassan argues that these are based on earlier originals and that they report hand-held cannons being used by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.[24]
Hasan al-Rammah included 107 gunpowder recipes in his text al-Furusiyyah wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya (The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices), 22 of which are for rockets. If one takes the median of 17 of these 22 compositions for rockets (75% nitrates, 9.06% sulfur, and 15.94% carbon), it is near identical with the modern reported ideal gunpowder recipe of 75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulfur, and 15% carbon, although this was already known to Roger Bacon[24]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] Mainland Europe]][edit] Mainland Europe
C. F. Temler interprets Peter, Bishop of Leon, as reporting the use of cannon in Seville in 1248 AD.[28]In Norwegian the Konungs skuggsjá of 1250 AD mentions in its military chapter, the use of two key ingredients: "coal and sulfur" as the best weapons for ship-to-ship combat.[29]
Dated around 1257 AD, among the earliest extant written references to gunpowder in Europe, are Roger Bacon's texts Epistola, "De Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae et de Nullitate Magiae," dated variously between 1248[30] and 1257,[31] he states:[30]
Cannons forged in 1667 AD at the Fortín de La Galera, Nueva Esparta, Venezuela.
The last part has been interpreted as an elaborate coded anagram for the quantities needed, but other academics holding contrary viewpoints argue this may be erroneous transcription of a passage read with much difficulty.[32][33]
Some authors maintain that around 1261, Roger did develop the ideal formula for gunpowder (75% of saltpeter, 15% of carbon and 10% of sulfur)[34]
In the Opus Maior of 1267 AD, Bacon describes firecrackers:[32]
- a child’s toy of sound and fire and explosion made in various parts of the world with powder of saltpetre, sulfur and charcoal of hazelwood.[35]
The Liber Ignium, or Book of Fires, attributed to Marcus Graecus, is a collection of incendiary recipes, including some gunpowder recipes. Partington dates the gunpowder recipes to approximately 1300.[36] One recipe for "flying fire" (ingis volatilis) involves saltpetre, sulfur, and colophonium, which, when inserted into a reed or hollow wood, "flies away suddenly and burns up everything." Another recipe, for artificial "thunder", specifies a mixture of one pound native sulfur, two pounds linden or willow charcoal, and six pounds of saltpeter.[37] Another specifies a 1:3:9 ratio.[37]Some of the gunpowder recipes of De Mirabilibus Mundi of Albertus Magnus are identical to the recipes of the Liber Ignium, and according to Partington, "may have been taken from that work, rather than conversely."[38] Partington suggests that some of the book may have been compiled by Albert's students, "but since it is found in thirteenth century manuscripts, it may well be by Albert."[38] Albertus Magnus died in 1280 AD.
A common German folk-tale is of the German priest/monk named Berthold Schwarz who independently invented gunpowder, thus earning it the German name Schwarzpulver or in English Schwarz's powder. Schwarz is also German for black so this folk-tale, while likely containing elements of truth, is considered problematic.
The major and uniquely European advancement of gunpowder was corning: the addition of moisture to the gunpowder to form regular greater grains which much increased the reliability and consistency of gunpowder. This occurred around the late 15th century CE, as European powdermakers began adding moisture to gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of dust explosion. The powdermakers would then shape the resulting mush of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry.
The new "corned" powder remained potent and more reliable to store as it was far less hygroscopic than the former powder (due to net reduced surface area). Gunners also found it was more powerful and easier to load measures of it into guns. An advantage of corning is that the combustion flame spreads evenly between the grains, thus igniting all grains before significant gas expansion (when the gunpowder actually "explodes"). Gunpowder not corned results in much unburnt powder blown away from the ignition flame and combustion chamber due to localized miniature gas expansions within the powder.
Europeans innovated by experimentation and discovering different kernel sizes combusted at differing rates, and thus were more suitable for one gun or for another. Molerus notes that without corning, gunpowder, like all dry mixtures, has a tendency to gradually separate back to its components and thus was too unreliable for effective use in guns as mixtures would not be of uniform composition, noting the use of corning technique is commonplace in the modern pharmaceutical industry to ensure uniform proportions of active ingredients for each tablet.[39]
Shot and gunpowder for military purposes were made by skilled military tradesmen, later called firemakers, and were also required to craft fireworks for celebrations of victory or peace. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged, one in Italy and the other at Nuremberg, Germany. The Italian school of pyrotechnics emphasized elaborate fireworks, and the German school stressed scientific advancement. Both schools added significantly to further development of pyrotechnics, and by the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens.[40]
By 1788, as a result of the reforms for which Lavoisier was mainly responsible, France had become self-sufficient in saltpeter, and its gunpowder had become not only widely considered the best in Europe but more importantly, inexpensive.[41]
The introduction of smokeless powder in the late 19th century led to the contraction of the gunpowder industry.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] British Isles]][edit] British Isles
The old Powder or Pouther magazine dating from 1642 AD, built by order of James VI.Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
Gunpowder production in Britain appears to have started in the mid 13th century AD with the aim of supplying The English Crown.[42] Records show that gunpowder was being made, in England, in 1346, at the Tower of London; a powder house existed at the Tower in 1461; and in 1515 three King's gunpowder makers worked there.[42] Gunpowder was also being made or stored at other Royal castles, such as Portchester. By the early 14th century, according to N.J.G. Pounds's study The Medieval Castle in England and Wales, many English castles had been deserted and others were crumbling. Their military significance faded except on the borders. Gunpowder had made smaller castles useless.[43]
Henry VIII of England was short of gunpowder when he invaded France in 1544 AD and England needed to import gunpowder via the port of Antwerp.[42]
The English Civil War, 1642-1645 AD, led to an expansion of the gunpowder industry, with the repeal of the Royal Patent in August 1641.[42]
Two British physicist, Andrew Noble and Frederick Abel, worked to improve the properties of blackpowder during the late 19th century. This formed the basis for the Noble-Abel gas equation for internal ballistics.[44]
The introduction of smokeless powder in the late 19th century led to a contraction of the gunpowder industry. After the end of World War I, the majority of the United Kingdom gunpowder manufacturers merged into a single company, "Explosives Trades limited"; and number of sites were closed down, including those in Ireland. This company became Nobel Industries Limited; and in 1926 became a founding member of Imperial Chemical Industries. The Home Office removed gunpowder from its list of Permitted Explosives; and shortly afterwards, on 31 December 1931, the former Curtis & Harvey's Glynneath gunpowder factory atPontneddfechan, in Wales, closed down, and it was demolished by fire in 1932.[45]
gun powder storing barrels atMartello tower in Point Pleasant Park
The last remaining gunpowder mill at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey was damaged by a German parachute minein 1941 and it never reopened.[10] This was followed by the closure of the gunpowder section at the Royal Ordnance Factory,ROF Chorley, the section was closed and demolished at the end of World War II; and ICI Nobel's Roslin gunpowder factory which closed in 1954.[10][46]
This left the sole United Kingdom gunpowder factory at ICI Nobel's Ardeer site in Scotland; it too closed in October 1976.[10] Since then gunpowder has been imported into the United Kingdom. In the late 1970s / early 1980s gunpowder was bought from eastern Europe, particularly from what was then the East Germany and former Yugoslavia.
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] India]][edit] India
A 17th century Tanjore Nayak kingdom's forge-welded iron cannon, at Thanjavur's eastern entrance (India).
Gunpowder had arrived in India by the mid-14th century, perhaps introduced by the Mongols as early as the mid-13th century.[47][48]
It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a dazzlingpyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258 CE.[49] Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in the Vijayanagara Empire of India by as early as 1366 AD.[49] From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in India was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 AD by Sultan Muhammad Shah Bahmani.[50]
By the 16th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore,Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad.[51] Guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut (1504 AD) and Diu (1533 AD).[52] Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century.[53] Bengal and Mālwaparticipated in saltpeter production.[53] The Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English used Chāpra as a center of saltpeter refining.[54]
War rockets, mines and counter mines using gunpowder were used in India by the time of Akbar and Jahangir.[52] Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), a Persian-Indian polymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar the Great in the Mughal Empire, invented an autocannon, early multi-shot gun. As opposed to the polybolos and repeating crossbows used earlier inancient Greece and China, respectively, Shirazi's rapid-firing gun had multiple gun barrels that fired hand cannons loaded with gunpowder.[55]
Both Hyder Ali and his son Tippu Sultan used black powder technology in iron-cased war rockets with considerable effect against the British, which inspired the development of the Congreve rocket.[56]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] History-edit] Indonesia]][edit] Indonesia
The Javanese Majapahit Empire is argued to have grown to span most of modern day ASEAN due to its Javanese mastery of bronze-smithing and unique within the immediate region to the Majapahit court, the technology and mass manufacture (via cottage industries which contributed to a central arsenal). Documentary and archeological evidence indicate that Arab or Indian traders introduced gunpowder, gonnes, muskets, blunderbusses, and cannon to the Javanese, Acehnese, and Batak via long established commercial trade routes around the early to mid 14th century CE.[57] Early European aggressors of Portugal and Spain were unpleasantly surprised and outgunned on many occasions.[58] The resurgent Singhasari Empire overtook Sriwijayaand later emerged as the Majapahit who rigidly established fire-arms and cannonade as a feature of warfare.[59]Circa 1540 CE the Javanese always alert for new weapons found the newly arrived Portuguese weaponry superior to that of the locally made variants. The Javanese bronze breech-loaded swivel-gun, erroneously termed the lantaka, more correctly known as a meriam was used ubiquitously by the Majapahit navy and unfortunately pirates and rival lords. The demise of the Majapahit empire and the flight of disaffected skilled bronze cannon-smiths to Brunei, modern Sumatra and Malaysia, and the Philippines lead to near universal use of the swivel-gun, especially on trade vessels to protect against prevalent marauding pirates, especially in theMakassar Strait.
A Chinese pirate or commercial shipwreck site unearthed a double-ended swivel gun, which enabled swift firing: one barrel would fire whiles its opposite would be reloaded, though this is a rare and unique piece. Other archeological finds have unearthed some triple-barrel and some double-barrel swivel-guns, which were not widely duplicated.
The saltpetre harvesting was recorded by Dutch and German travelers as being common to even the smallest villages and collected from the decomposition process of large goat dung hills specifically piled for collection this saltpetre, a most unpleasant job. Saltpetre must be remembered by today's reader as being a key food preservative agent in a period of no refrigeration.
The Dutch punishment for possession of unpermitted gunpowder appears to have been amputation.[60]
Ownership and manufacture of gunpowder was later prohibited by the colonial Dutch occupiers.[57] Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, from his The History of Java relates the process of powder manufacture, perhaps of noteworthy relevance considering at the time it was a military-related craft and not always recorded:
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Manufacturing technology]][edit] Manufacturing technology
Edge-runner mill in a restored mill, atEleutherian Mills
For the most powerful black powder meal, a wood charcoal is used. The best wood for the purpose is Pacific willow,[61] but others such as alder or buckthorn can be used. The ingredients are mixed as thoroughly as possible. This is achieved using a ball mill with non-sparking grinding apparatus (e.g., bronze or lead), or similar device. Historically, a marble or limestone edge runner mill, running on a limestone bed was used in Great Britain; however, by the mid 19th century CE this had changed to either an iron shod stone wheel or a cast iron wheel running on an iron bed.[6] The mix is sometimes dampened with alcohol or water during grinding to prevent accidental ignition.
Around the late 14th century CE, European powdermakers began adding damp to the constituents of gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of explosion.[62] The powdermakers would then shape the resulting paste of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry. Not only did corned powder keep better because of its reduced surface area, gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into guns. Before long, powdermakers standardized the process by forcing mill cake through sieves instead of corning powder by hand.
During the 18th century gunpowder factories became increasingly dependent on mechanical energy.[63]
[[#Gunpowder, Artillery, and Weapons-edit] Other uses]][edit] Other uses
Besides its use as an explosive, gunpowder has been occasionally employed for other purposes; after the Battle of Aspern-Essling(1809), the surgeon of the Napoleonic Army Larrey combated the lack of food for the wounded under his care by preparing abouillon of horse meat seasoned with gunpowder for lack of salt.[64][65] It was also used for sterilizing on ships when there was no alcohol.Christiaan Huygens experimented with gunpowder in 1673 in an early attempt to build an internal combustion engine, but he did not succeed in making a practical engine.
Fireworks and Firecrackers also use gunpowder but use different brands and different chemicals.
Black powder is still used in delay-trains in modern arms. For instance, in a hand grenade, a mechanical striker ignites a percussion primer which ignites a slow black powder delay. The delay burns a few seconds until it gets to the high explosive primary, which detonates, initiating the grenade fill explosive, thus fragmenting the grenade